Franziska A. Karpinski

Junior Fellow (02/2018–06/2018)

In Defence of ‘Honour’ and ‘Masculinity’. Social Pressure, Violence, and Punishment within the Nazi Elite 1933–1945

This project examines how the concepts of collective and individual honour and masculinity were defined, negotiated, and practised within the SS, as well as how these concepts fuelled violent peer interaction. Rooted in Holocaust perpetrator research, I explore perpetrator peer dynamics within the SS, based on a close reading of archival material such as SS directives, SS court documents, private letters, and internal correspondence amongst the SS leadership. This analysis will be embedded into a discussion of socio-political conditions of the Third Reich. Honour and masculinity became state-sanctioned entities, interwoven with the fabric of National Socialism, its judicial, social, and political institutions, as well as concepts used in daily interactions. Within this framework, specific ‘SS-worthy’, i.e. honourable behaviour and unconditional loyalty was especially demanded within the SS, which conceived of itself as an elite order of political soldiers in the service of Nazism. Particularly, I examine what was considered ‘SS-worthy’: What ‘virtues’ and ‘ideals’ did the SS leadership prescribe for SS members? How were masculinity and honour appropriated by the SS and woven into mandatory SS directives? Why, how, and with what consequences did this appropriation happen? What implementation mechanisms were to translate masculinity and honour into entities informing SS peer interaction? Mechanisms of implementation towards the dishonourable were punitive and shaming in nature and included SS court-ordered dismissals, expulsions, incarcerations, disciplinary measures, and social ostracism. I will also highlight how shame and shaming within the framework of the SS functioned as a tool of social control and punishment. An analysis of honour, masculinity, and emotional dynamics within the SS can help understand its processes of radicalisation and both its immensely violent and self-destructive nature.

Franziska A. Karpinski, B.A. in North American Studies at the Free University in Berlin (2011), M.A. in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (with Distinction) at the University of Amsterdam (2012), has been a Ph.D. candidate at Loughborough University since 2014. She has been the recipient of an EHRI Fellowship at the Institute for Contemporary History in Munich and at the International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen. Her latest publication is Sexual Violence in the Nazi Genocide – Law, Gender and Ideology, in: Uğur Ümit Üngör, Genocide. New Perspectives on its Causes, Courses and Consequences. Amsterdam 2016.

Junior Fellowships 2017/2018 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2017/2018.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the study and documentation of antisemitism, racism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Ph.D. candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Junior fellows will have a work station at the VWI with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.)
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (if possible in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header "VWI Junior Fellowships 2017/2018" by 29 January, 2018 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich  and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Junior Fellowships 2018/2019 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2018/2019.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the study and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Ministry of Science, Research and Economy as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Ph.D. candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Junior fellows will have a work station at the VWI with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.)
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (if possible in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header "VWI Junior Fellowships 2018/2019" by 31 January, 2018 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich  and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Junior Fellowships 2019/2020 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2019/2020.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Ph.D. candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Junior fellows will have a work station at the VWI with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.)
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Junior Fellowships 2019/2020” by 13 January 2019 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich  and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Junior Fellowships 2020/2021 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2020/2021.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Ph.D. candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Junior fellows will have a work station at the VWI with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.)
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Junior Fellowships 2020/2021” by 12 January 2020 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich  and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Junior Fellowships 2021/2022 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2021/2022.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

Ph.D. candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows' discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a short research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI‘s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Junior fellows will have a work station at the VWI with computer and internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the research objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.)
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Junior Fellowships 2020/2021” by 27 January 2021 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreich  and to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Junior Fellowships 2022/2023 at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI)

The Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies (VWI) invites applications for its junior fellowships for the academic year 2022/2023.

The VWI is an academic institution dedicated to the research and documentation of antisemitism, racism, nationalism and the Holocaust. Conceived and established during Simon Wiesenthal’s lifetime, the VWI receives funding from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research, the Federal Chancellery as well as the City of Vienna. Research at the Institute focuses on the Holocaust in its European context, including its antecedents and its aftermath.

PhD-candidates from anywhere in the world are eligible to apply for a junior fellowship. Junior fellows will be able to work on a research project of their choice in the field of Holocaust studies at the Institute. Beyond the research work itself, the stay at the Institute is intended to encourage communication and scientific exchange among the fellows at the Institute. Junior fellows will receive support and advice from the VWI as well as its senior and research fellows. Junior fellows are expected to regularly attend the VWI and take on an active role in the Institute’s research activities.

Research projects are to focus on a topic relevant to the research interests of the VWI. Within this parameter, applicants are free to choose their own topic, approach and methodology. Fellows will have access to the archives of the Institute. It is expected that fellows will make use of relevant resources from the collection in their research projects. Research results will be the subject of formal fellows’ discussions and will be presented to the wider public at regular intervals. At the end of their stay, fellows are required to submit a research paper which will be peer-reviewed and published in VWI’s e-journal S:I.M.O.N. – Shoah: Intervention. Methods. Documentation.

Junior fellowships are awarded for a duration of between six and eleven months. Experience tells that residencies between nine and eleven months are the most productive for facilitating the research of the fellows at the VWI. Junior fellows will have a working space at the VWI and Internet access and will receive a monthly stipend of € 1,200. In addition, junior fellows who are not Vienna residents will receive accommodation funding of € 340 per month. VWI will also cover the costs of a round-trip to and from Vienna (coach class airfare or 2nd class train fare). There is an additional one-off payment of € 500 available for research conducted outside of Vienna or photocopying costs outside of the Institute, where applicable.

Junior fellows will be selected by the International Academic Advisory Board of the VWI.

Applications may be submitted in English or German and must include the following documents:

• completed application form,
• a detailed description of the research project, including the objectives, an overview of existing research on the topic and methodology (12,000 character max.),
• two letters of recommendation (please indicate when sent separately),
• list of publications (if applicable),
• a CV (optional: with picture).

Please send your application in electronic format (in one integral *.pdf-file) with the subject header “VWI Junior Fellowships 2022/2023” by 14 January 2022 to:

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

If you do not get confirmation that we have received your proposal, please contact us.

Future junior fellows are advised to endeavour to finance a part of their fellowship via a stipend from the Stipendienstiftung der Republik Österreichand to submit an application to this end after they have received notification of being awarded their fellowship.

Leo Gürtler

Junior Fellow (10/2016-08/2017)

Franz Stangl. A Biography

The Austrian police detective Franz Stangl had an astounding career during National Socialism: As a Gestapo agent, he was hired for the ‘Aktion T4’ programme and was active at the euthanasia killing-sites Hartheim. After that, he was appointed in the context of the ‘Aktion Reinhard’ first as commandant of Sobibor and finally as commandant of the Treblinka extermination camp. After 1945, he was able to flee via Syria to Brazil with the help of the Vatican. He was tracked down there by Simon Wiesenthal, was arrested in 1967, and extradited to the Federal Republic of Germany. He died in Düsseldorf prison after being found guilty at trial in 1970. The main goal of this dissertation project is to produce a comprehensive and nuanced biography of Franz Stangl as a historical and biographical case study, thereby to make a further contribution to contemporary historical biographical research and the research of perpetrators.

Leo Gürtler’s dissertation project is part of the research focus Diktaturen, Gewalt, Genozide (Dictatorships, Violence, and Genocides) at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna, where he completed his Magister with the thesis Das Ghetto in Lublin 1941–42 (The Ghetto in Lublin 1941-42).

Sharon Park

Junior Fellow (10/2016-08/2017)

Narrating Humanitarian Aid to European Refugee Children after World War II, 1945–1953

Using age and gender as analytical lenses, this project examines the personal accounts of Jewish refugee children and youth who experienced and witnessed the distribution of international aid after the Second World War. It explores how refugee children's perspectives and understandings of their own agency can push back against the "official" narratives and expectations produced by state-level actors and social workers. Contemporaneous and retrospective accounts also provide insights into how young refugees’ experiences of persecution and antisemitism shaped their conceptions of citizenship, belonging, and democracy in relation to their former and new homes. In addition to social workers’ papers, questionnaires, and agency case files collected from archives in Austria, Germany, France, the U.K., and the U.S., this project works closely with oral history interviews in the Association of Jewish Refugees' "Refugee Stories" collection and the literature on child refugees in the VWI Library.

Sharon Park received her PhD in History at the University of Minnesota. Her work has focussed on Jewish child migrants’ personal narratives and the intersections between refugee and welfare policies in the United States after the Second World War. She also worked as an editorial assistant of the Austrian History Yearbook from 2013–2015.

Anna-Raphaela Schmitz

Junior Fellow (10/2016-04/2017)

Rudolf Höß. Behaviour, Relationships, and Private Life of a Concentration Camp Commandant

This dissertation project examines the personal networks and behaviour of Rudolf Höß and of the functional elite of the SS in Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is conceived as a scholarly examination of the commandant from the various perspectives of diverse groups of people, embedding these into the social context of the Nazi regime. From everyday and microperspectives of Höß, this project examines the planning and execution of the Holocaust. Employing a biographical approach grounded in practice theory, it analyses the parameters given by the Nazi leadership on the one hand and the guiding principles and social interactions of the perpetrators in Auschwitz on the other hand. Thus, the interactions of the SS men as well as the connections on both institutional and personal levels both in and outside the camp walls will be presented in a network analysis.

Anna-Raphaela Schmitz is a PhD candidate at the Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich and works as a research assistant at the Centre for Holocaust Studies at the Institute for Contemporary History. She completed her Magister in History and Political Science in 2010 at the University of Trier and received her M.A. in Holocaust Communication and Tolerance at Touro College, Berlin, in 2013. She was an EHRI Fellow at the Vienna Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies and a participant in the EHRI Summer School in Holocaust Studies at the Instituut voor Oorlogs-, Holocaust en Genocidestudies (NIOD) in Amsterdam.